Seeking peace in Greece | Opinion
Photo taken by SMU associate dean Anthony J. Elia during his recent trip to Greece for the International Orthodox Theological Association.Halfway between Athens and Thessaloniki, on the shores of the Pagasetic Gulf, is a mountainside city that graduates into Homer’s wine-dark sea, a place called Volos, home of the mythic characters Jason and the Argonauts, who, as the ancients believed, set sail from here in search of the Golden Fleece.
Traveling to Greece, one is struck by both the antique culture of Plato and Aristotle, and the Byzantine hierarchy of the Eastern Church. The remains of the ancient Greek world are among the most stunning examples of venerable art and architecture. And a climb atop the Acropolis in Athens is breathtaking and intense. To step among the ancient marbles where Socrates once taught conveys an overwhelming sense of meaning and presence that no high school textbook or college class can demonstrate.
We discussed everything from theological ethics, Byzantine chant and iconography to modern medicine, conspiracy theories and environmental stewardship in the Church. There were also debates about orthodoxy in the American context, the role of the body and sexuality, the perception of secularity, and the complex relationships that exist among political ideologies, the state and religious organizations.
I climbed with Germans, Americans, Belarusians, Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks, Italians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Canadians and Romanians. Humans, brothers and sisters, with a common sense of our humanity. We sought common ground among differences, while a war with global implications raged a day’s drive north of us.
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